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Revenge of the Living Dummy
Revenge of the Living Dummy is the first book in the Goosebumps HorrorLand series by R.L. Stine. Normal Plot The main character, Britney Crosby, is upset because her obnoxious younger cousin, Ethan, is coming to stay with the family. He shows up with a ventriloquist's dummy slung over his shoulder, who he calls Mr. Badboy. This dummy is, of course, none other than Slappy himself. To take her mind off things, she goes to hang out with her friend Molly Molley. Molly's dad collects paranormal artifacts, and he shows them his new addition: it's a little glass coffin containing a Mind Stealer doll... wooden, except for the head, which is a real shrunken head. Molly's dad explains that the doll supposedly sucks peoples' minds out, leaving their brains completely empty. Over the course of the novel, strange occurrences happen, things are destroyed or go missing, and Britney blames Ethan, who has a history of doing this stuff. Her parents don't believe her of course, and Ethan swears to Britney that it's Slappy doing this, not him. Britney doesn't believe him at first, but then Slappy begins to move and talk to her all by himself. She's obviously convinced he's real, and attempts to convince her parents who believe she's going crazy. Meanwhile, Molly tells Britney that her father's colleague called from out of the country and explained the Mind Stealer is truly evil, and the only way to prevent it from doing harm is to bury it in a cemetery, so that night, they do just that: bury the doll, coffin and all, in a local cemetery. Britney's doing a presentation of her painting skills at the local retirement home, and Britney's mom suggests Ethan bring Mr. Badboy as a side act.At the presentation, Britney does a "beautiful" watercolor painting of a sunset, Bob Ross-style, and then Ethan goes on with Mr. Badboy.... who consistently insults the entire audience, getting Britney in trouble, and frightening Ethan.Britney decides to research 'Mr. Badboy' in Molly's father's doll profiles, and finds that Mr. Badboy is actually Slappy, made in the 1800s out of coffin wood, who can be brought to life (or sent back to sleep)by repeating a strange series of words (the same ones from the other books).Britney gets the idea to repeat the words to Slappy, sending him back to sleep, and goes home to Ethan's room to do it. She repeats the words to a motionless Slappy, who slumps forward when she's finished. Excited that she's "killed" him, she notices a pair of Ethan's old jeans laying on the bed, and sees a small, unlabeled remote control sticking out of the pocket. She presses a button, and Slappy repeats the same phrases he's been telling her the last few days. She realizes that Ethan had wired Slappy to be controlled by the remote, and had been lying all along. Later that night, relieved that Slappy wasn't actually alive, Britney falls asleep... only to be awoken by Slappy in the middle of the night, thanking her for waking him up and claiming that he'll make her his slave. When she wrestles him off, he decides to dig up the shrunken head and use it to steal Britney's mind, making her a perfect slave. Slappy leaves to find the local cemetery, and as he digs up the coffin, Britney tackles him. She pushes his head down into the coffin, and in a flash of blinding white light, Slappy's mind is sucked into the cursed doll, and he goes limp. Britney decides to bury Slappy's body in the dug-up grave, and as she raises him over her head to throw him in, her parents show up in their car, claiming that they followed her to the cemetery. Britney explains about Slappy, but her parents still don't believe her. They tell her to get in the car, that they'll take her to 'talk to someone' in the morning. She gets up to leave, and just as she does, the cursed doll (in Slappy's voice) tells her: "I'll be baaack. I'm a baaaad boy!" Enter HorrorLand Plot Britney and Molly are invited to spend a week-long, all-expenses-paid vacation to Horrorland, along with Britney's parents. They arrive at the ticket window to find it empty. A Horror (park employee) reaches out from behind the booth and grabs Britney by the neck. He apologizes and says he's just doing his job. Then he tells the family that he can't let them into the park without first recording them screaming, 'so they can be identified later'. As the family is about to be let into the park, the Horror turns a blowtorch on the family's suitcases and sets them aflame. After convincing themselves it's just a joke, and that their real luggage will be at the hotel waiting for them, they climb into a Horror-driven taxi, who takes them on a bumpy ride up to the hotel, who claims that the cab is out of control and bails out right before the taxi hits a cement wall. The taxi stops just in time to miss the wall, and the family realizes the cab was on a track the whole time. Out in the park, Britney and Molly find an old-fashioned fortune telling machine called Madam Doom. Britney has it read her fate, and it ejects a blank card, as the automated gypsy says, "Britney, you don't have a future". Returning to the Stagger Inn, Britney finds that her parents are missing. When she asks at the reception, the Horror behind the desk explains that her parents checked out and went home. With Molly in tow, Britney arrives at her parents' room to find it completely empty, with the exception of her father's brand-new digital camera. Turning the camera on, Britney sees that the latest picture to be taken is of Slappy, in the hotel room. The novel then cuts off, saying "To Be Continued in Creep from the Deep".